


What You Don't See

by Princess0fMirkwood



Series: Pay No Attention to the Family Behind the Door [1]
Category: Sweet Magnolias (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Car Accidents, Child Abuse, Hurt/Comfort, I might make this gay, Maddie Townsend is a good mom, Not actually very graphic, Oh my gosh Mary Vaughn Sucks, Tyler Townsend is a good friend, shitty parents, we'll see, who knows - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:09:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25734094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princess0fMirkwood/pseuds/Princess0fMirkwood
Summary: One of the worse things to come out of the whole situation was the fact that Ty hadn’t seen Jackson in days, not at school, not at the hospital, not even on the street anywhere. The weirdest thing, though, was that Ty hadn’t even seen him at practice. He had convinced himself that he didn’t care about Jackson, but he couldn’t deny that he was curious.It wasn’t until today, that Ty finally saw him. Jackson was walking out of the automatic doors of the hospital, limping slightly, looking defeated as all hell, and walking as fast as he could. He was wearing the team baseball cap, but it was tilted just so so that Ty couldn’t see his right eye, and he was clutching his left wrist. It was then that Ty did something that he never thought he would in a million years.“Jackson,” he called out, “are you okay?”
Relationships: Tyler Townsend & Jackson Lewis
Series: Pay No Attention to the Family Behind the Door [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1939018
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	What You Don't See

**Author's Note:**

> Please enjoy this deep dive into some of the thoughts that were running through my mind as I watched this wonderful show. This is basically "What if it was Nellie in the car with Kyle." And Jackson's dad is a piece of shit and Mary Vaughn is still the worst.

Tyler Townsend was sitting outside the hospital, just like he had been doing every day since the accident. He held his tightly intertwined hands on his knees as he drummed his thumbs against them. No one can prepare you for something like this...nothing can.  
Of course, he wasn’t the only one impacted by the car crash. His mom and dad were there every day as well, and Aunt Helen and Dana Sue. the Mayor and Mary Vaugh were there too, and Ty was sure that they would never forgive what happened to Nellie. Kyle shouldn’t have been driving the car, of course, but it’s not like he was trying to hurt her or anything.  
One of the worse things to come out of the whole situation was the fact that Ty hadn’t seen Jackson in days, not at school, not at the hospital, not even on the street anywhere. The weirdest thing, though, was that Ty hadn’t even seen him at practice. He had convinced himself that he didn’t care about Jackson, but he couldn’t deny that he was curious.  
It wasn’t until today, that Ty finally saw him. Jackson was walking out of the automatic doors of the hospital, limping slightly, looking defeated as all hell and walking as fast as he could. He was wearing the team baseball cap, but it was tilted just so so that Ty couldn’t see his right eye, and he was clutching his left wrist. It was then that Ty did something that he never thought he would in a million years.  
“Jackson,” he called out, “are you okay?” Jackson stopped. He turned and looked at Ty directly in the eyes.  
“What do you think, Townsend.” He growled, taking a step towards Ty.  
“I don’t know, I just saw that you were limping so I-”  
“Since when do you care about me?” Jackson yelled, walking closer to Ty.  
“I was just-”  
“You don’t get to care about me, Townsend! My sister is in the hospital because of your idiot of a little brother!”  
“Hey!” Ty yelled back, “Don’t talk about Kyle like that, it was an accident and you know it.”  
“I’m not sure if I do.” Jackson said grimly, “Maybe he wanted to hurt my sister.” That was the last straw for Ty. He knew that he didn’t want to resort to violence, so what the last straw did was make him walk away.  
“I can’t believe I was worried about you.” Ty said, turning around to go back into the hospital. There wasn’t a long enough pause between that and the feeling of a hand on his shoulder, spinning him back around.  
“You’re done, Townsend.” Jackson swung his right arm around, hand clenched in a fist, and connected with Ty’s cheek, knocking him down.  
“What. The. Hell, Jackson,” Ty said, wiping some blood off of his lip with the back of his hand, “Why did you do that?”  
Jackson didn’t answer him, he just stared at his hands blankly. Ty could see a tear roll down his cheek.  
“I’m sorry I hit you…” Jackson mumbled, at least that’s what Ty heard.  
“What did you say?” Ty asked. This question broke Jackson from his trance, and he looked at Ty with angry eyes.  
“I said I’m sorry that your brother’s a psycho.” Ty stood up quickly.  
“Excuse me?”  
“I said that your brother is. a. psycho.” That was enough.  
Ty let out a yell and tackled Jackson to the ground. They rolled around, both throwing punches at the other, some of them missing and hitting the pavement. Jackson seemed to cry out in pain each time they rolled, as well as each time he punched with his left hand.  
“He almost killed my sister!” Jackson yelled with a fist raised, now sitting on top of Ty.  
“How do you think I feel!” Ty yelled back. 

Jackson was silent for a moment.  
“What?” His hand relaxed.  
“How do you think I feel, Jackson. Kyle almost died too. I almost lost my brother, just like you with Nellie,” Ty shoved Jackson onto the ground, “I was just as scared as you.” And again Jackson Lewis said nothing.  
“I don’t-”  
“Yeah Jackson, you don’t care. I get it.”  
“Ty,” Jackson said, Ty’s eyes widened at the other using his first name, “I don’t know what I was doing. I’m sorry.” He stood up, his hat falling off, but he didn’t notice. Jackson gripped his left wrist again and started walking back to the parking lot, still limping. Ty bent down to pick up his fallen hat and jogged up to him.  
“Hey, you dropped this.” He said, grabbing Jackson’s shoulder to turn him around. As he did Ty could see that his right eye was as purple as could be. He reeled back in shock.  
“What happened to your eye?”  
“Nothing,” Jackson snapped, snatching his hat from Ty’s hand and putting it on, “I mean, you probably got me in the eye.”  
“But I didn’t,” Ty said, “plus, the bruises wouldn’t be this bad yet if it just happened.” He started to reach towards Jackson’s eye, but Jackson slapped his hand away. He used his left hand, and cried out a little after such a swift motion.  
“Dude, your wrist is-”  
“My wrist is fine!” Jackson said, “Just...just leave me alone Townsend. I don’t need your help.”  
“So you admit that you need help?”  
“What? No. I-”  
“I know you’re lying. And even though I’m supposed to hate you, I don’t, and I’m worried. Now tell me, what happened to your eye and your wrist,” a thought came into Ty’s head, “oh, and your ankle.”  
“I don’t know what yo-”  
“Dude, literally, I’m not blind, I can see that you’re hurt. And I haven’t seen you at practice so don’t say that they’re baseball injuries.” Ty said. Jackson sighed, relenting.  
“Fine.”  
“Great.”  
“Can we talk somewhere else, though?” Ty nodded, and the two walked all the way to Ty’s house from the hospital. As Ty walked up the steps to his front door, Jackson stayed at the bottom of them. Ty turned.  
“What are you waiting for?”  
“I’ve never actually been inside your house before, so this is a bit weird for me.” Jackson said, shuffling his feet.  
“Oh, yeah,” Ty said, “well, you can come in now.” The two entered the house quietly, only for Ty to be met with a hug from Katie.  
“TY!” She yelled, “How’s Ky-” She stopped when she saw Jackson, “Why is he here, Tyler?”  
“We’re just going to talk, Katydid, that’s all.”  
“Oh.” She said plainly, before bounding off into another part of the house calling for her and Ty’s mother.  
“C’mon,” Ty said to Jackson, “my room’s upstairs.” He started up, and Jackson limped after him all the way up the stairs and down the hall to Ty’s bedroom. Jackson couldn’t help but feel a tinge of pain as they passed Kyle’s room and he saw all of the show posters. Jackson basically fell onto Ty’s bed as Ty closed the door. He sat down in the chair next to his window.  
“So,” Ty said, “how did you get all of that?” He was prepared to laugh at Jackson for falling down the stairs or punching the ground too hard, but he wasn’t prepared for what he actually said.  
“My dad.” 

Utterly unprepared for the situation, Ty just stared at him. His own father was pretty crappy most of the time, cheating on his mom and all, but he was never violent. Not with him, not with Kyle or Katie, not his mom, not anyone. It was hard for Ty to understand how a father could do something like that to his own son.  
“Y-your dad did all of that to you?” Jackson nodded.  
“Normally it isn’t this bad, maybe a shove, or gripping my arm too hard and leaving bruises,” even that was foreign to Ty, “it would get worse after a bad outing, and he would just yell at me about how I wasn’t worth anything, and my mom would say it too. At school and at home. But they would never hit me.”  
“But,” Ty said quietly, “after the-”  
“Yeah,” Jackson whispered, “after the accident, my dad started railing on me extra hard. He said that he couldn’t believe he was even letting me live under his roof,” his voice kept getting louder, “he said that I was a burden, that Nellie never did anything wrong.”  
“Ja-”  
“He asked me why I couldn’t be more like her, make less trouble, be better at baseball, at anything.” He sounded angrier, a few tears welling in his eyes.  
“Jacks-”  
“He said th-tha-that he wished it had been me in the car.” He managed to get out. Ty didn’t even try to interject. “So he grabbed my wrist and shoved me against the wall, pushing me down and stepping on my ankle,” Ty was trying to hold back vomiting, “he told me to fix it because it was my fault. Then he let me go, and I tried to stand up, but he punched me, and I fell down. He just walked away, and my mom ran after him.” He started crying, and Ty stood up and walked over to his bed, sitting next to Jackson.  
“It’s okay.”  
“But it’s not!” Jackson yelled, standing up, “it is my fault! Nellie is in the hospital because of me, so is Kyle. I deserved these!” He shouted, pointing to his injuries, “I deserved these too!” He lifted his shirt, revealed that his chest and stomach were littered with bruises. Ty didn’t say anything, he just stood up and hugged Jackson. He hugged the kid that he had hated his entire life, because he didn’t deserve it, and he never would.  
“She-she was the only one who ever really cared about me…” Jackson cried, “and not just what I could do.” Ty had no idea what he could say. So he didn’t. He just let Jackson cry on his shoulder.  
Katie had told Maddie that Jackson was there, so she was already upstairs when she heard the yelling. She burst into Ty’s room, ready to keep the two boys from killing each other, but she didn’t have to, because they were silent, Jackson sobbing into Ty’s shoulder. Maddie decided to close the door and wait until Ty came to talk to her himself.

Around an hour later, Ty came downstairs.  
“Hey Ty,” Maddie said, “Katie told me Jackson was here.”  
“Yeah,” Ty said, “he’s asleep right now.”  
“Asleep? Where?”  
“My bed.” Ty said nonchalantly, going to the cabinet to grab a glass.  
“Really,” Maddie said, in awe, “I never thought that I would see the day.”  
“What do you mean?” Ty asked, filling the glass with water.  
“Well you and Jackson have been at each other’s throats since diapers. So I never thought that I would see the day when he would be in your room.” She placed her hand on his shoulder.  
“Oh,” he said, “well he needed to talk, so...he’s there.”  
“What did he ne-”  
“I have to get back upstairs.” Ty said quickly, rushing past Maddie and back up the stairs to his bedroom. She stared after him, letting out a sigh. She knew that he didn’t want her butting in on his life, but Maddie could tell that something was wrong. She followed him up as quietly as she could, watching Ty go into his bedroom. Again, she expected to hear angry yelling and an argument and Jackson storming out. But she heard and saw none of that. It was quiet, except for the few whispers that she could hear. Maddie crept forward to Ty’s door, and peered inside to see quite the sight. Jackson was just laying on Ty’s bed, eyes closed, asleep, and Ty was kneeling next to him. Maddie could see Jackson jerking slightly, and she could hear little whimpers coming from him. Ty stood up a little bit more and reached over to grab Jackson’s arm, shaking him gently and whispering.  
“Hey Jacks, it’s okay, you’re okay. He can’t hurt you here.” Jackson stopped squirming. Maddie’s eyes widened at what her son said. Jackson’s eyes opened and he moved to sit up, but let out a yelp when he put pressure on his hand.  
“Ty,” Maddie said, deciding to intervene, “come talk to me please.” Ty had spun around to look at her.  
“Mom, I-”  
“Come talk to me, Tyler.” Ty nodded and Maddie walked out. Ty looked at Jackson with eyes that said ‘I’m sorry.’ He stood and walked out of the room, leaving Jackson alone with his thoughts, which were hoping that Ty’s mom wouldn’t tell his parents that he was there.  
Ty met his mother at the top of the stairs, her arms were crossed and her face seemed to be angry.  
“Mom, don’t be mad, you won’t belie-”  
“I’m not mad at you, Ty. I’m worried. About you, about him.” She said, gesturing to Ty’s bedroom, “Now what is going on?”  
Ty sighed, “He’s pretty hurt, mom.”  
“And you didn’t hurt him, did you?”  
“What? No-Mom, I didn’t hurt him. I mean we were arguing about Kyle and Nellie outside the hospital and he punched me and-”  
“He punched you?”  
“Yes, but it’s okay. And we may have fought, but I didn’t do any of that to him.”  
“Well who did?”  
“His dad!” Ty said almost immediately, and most definitely immediately regretting that he did, “Wait, I-I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.” He rubbed his face with his hand, waiting for his mom to respond, but she didn’t say anything. Ty looked up at her, and saw her face was full of shock and disgust. She pushed past him and started towards his room.  
“Mom, wait!” Ty called after her, but she burst into his room, startling Jackson, who was sitting up in Ty’s bed. Maddie marched over to him and pulled him into a fierce hug, one that Jackson was taken aback by. He relaxed and wrapped his arms around her as well.

“Mom?” Ty spoke quietly, “can he stay here tonight?”  
“Oh, well,” Maddie said, breaking the hug and looking into Jackson’s eyes, “of course he can.” She smiled. He smiled back.

**Author's Note:**

> I really like the idea of Ty and Jackson being friends (and maybe more? I'm a sucker for some good enemies to friends to lovers so who knows since I also love Ty/Annie) and this helped with it. Tell me if I should make a second part because I feel like I could do a lot with this whole idea. Plus I just love comments in general.


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